Andrew Cuomo in 2017 Governor's State of the State speeches

I propose a Middle Class Child Care Tax Credit--more than 200,000 families will see their tax benefits more than double on average. A Middle Class Recovery Act will impact the entire state, but we need to think regionally. Why? Because the old approach
to economic development was to have one plan for the whole state. We don't really have one economy in the whole state. Long Island is different than the North Country. What you really need to do is focus region by region and develop regional economies.

Source: 2017 State of the State address to New York Legislature
Jan 9, 2017

On Local Issues:
Buffalo Billion: make up for 50 years of state inattention

We put together Regional Economic Development Councils. And it is working. We have invested $4.6B in these Regional Economic Development Councils. In Western New York we made a special commitment. Why? We had a commitment to make up for years of
abandonment and years of inaction.

I first came to Buffalo when my father was Governor. Buffalo got caught in an economic transition & really, state government was never there to help. The economic transition has been going on since the 50's, the 60's,
70's, 80's, 90's. And when I became Governor I committed myself making up for the lack of state investment in Buffalo. And we did and that's what the Buffalo Billion was all about. It was a billion dollars. Why a billion? A billion to say to people,
this is not just another plan.

So we said "a Buffalo billion, ohh." Not only did it rhyme, billion is a serious number. And it got people's attention. And then we went to work. You can't reverse 50 years of economic decline in five years. But we did.

Source: 2017 State of the State address to New York Legislature
Jan 9, 2017